Page 16 - Archaeology - October 2017

FROM THE TRENCHES

LAST STAND OF THE BLUE BRIGADE

the November 1632 Battle of Lüt-
17th-century soliders’ remains, Lützen, Germany
zen. Around 9,000 others also per-
ished in the fight, which took place
in present-day Germany. In 2011,
archaeologists discovered a mass
grave containing 47 of these soldiers
in an area where an elite Swedish unit
called the Blue Brigade was report-
edly cut down in a surprise attack by
a Catholic cavalry unit.
The researchers, led by Nicole
Nicklisch of the State Office for
Heritage Management and Archae-
ology Saxony-Anhalt, removed the
remains in a 55-ton slab of soil and
brought it to the lab for study. They
have now found that, by seventeenth-
century standards, an unusually high
number of the soldiers had been shot.
“More than half of the men were
struck by gunfire,” says Nicklisch,
“which caused injuries that would
have resulted in their deaths.” The
bullet fragments found in the grave
he Thirty Years’ War raged from 1618 through 1648, and came from pistols, muskets, and carbines, the sorts of weapons
at its outset pitted Protestant states against Catholic used by cavalry at close range. While some of the soldiers in the
T ones within the Holy Roman Empire. In 1630, Sweden’s grave were likely from the Catholic cavalry unit, most appear to
king Gustavus Adolphus joined the side of the Protestants have been their victims from the Swedish Blue Brigade.
and led his troops to a number of victories before dying in –DAniEl wEiss

WHERE THERE’S COAL…

he record of human occupation there by humans or if it had been depos- analysis of thermal alterations in the
in the Yucatán Peninsula has been ited there by natural processes. rock, researchers think they have evi-
T helped greatly by the discovery Now, however, through geological dence confirming the existence of
and documentation of human fossils and bonfires in situ. This would date the
bones found in cenotes, or sinkholes, occupation of the cave to around 10,500
and flooded caves. Among these sites is years ago, at the end of the Ice Age
the Ancestors Chamber of the Cenote when the cave was still dry. Archaeolo-
Aktun Ha cave system. Intriguingly, 14 gists believe that the cave was used as a
concentrations of coal were identified shelter providing protection from both
in the Ancestors Chamber, distributed the extreme weather conditions of the
in an area of approximately 200 square epoch and large predators, and that
feet. But without proof that the coal had ceremonial activities might taken place
Ancestors Chamber,
been ignited there, scholars have long there as well.
Yucatán Peninsula, Mexico
speculated as to whether it was brought –octAvio DEl rio
14 ARCHAEOLOGY • September/October 2017